Cherry Springs 110 Galeton, PA #72

Cherry Springs 100, a point-to-point trail race in northern Pennsylvania through International Dark Sky regions, navigating by gpx and trail blazes, the course follows the Susquehannock and the Midstate Massive trails through a remote, wet, rocky, stunningly beautiful wilderness.

By "chance" I met the RD of Cherry Springs 110, Chris Raup, at the start line of Rocky Raccoon 100 back in February where we ran together for 15-20 miles. 400 other runners, Chris had been looking for how to get in touch with me after hearing my story, and by a miracle, we ended up finding each other there. I learned he is a combat veteran who suffered ptsd, and is writing a book and currently runs Warrior Trails Foundation which uses race proceeds to provide access to trail running and hiking as a form of recreational therapy and community for veterans.

https://www.warriortrail.run/ “The goal of the foundation is to partner with Veterans through the transformative power of the wilderness experience. The mission is to honor the service and sacrifice of veterans by providing support and resources aimed at improving physical, mental and spiritual wellness within this community. Through outreach, education, and access to coaching and mental health resources, the foundation strives to foster a culture of understanding, resilience and support.”

I was so excited to support Chris's mission, run his race and hopefully help get this spectacular course, which I found harder than any other qualifier race I've finished, onto the map as a must-do race!

I had quite an ordeal getting to my race start. With a few of my kids and their babies coming into Berryville to the farm to help clean out the house and pack things up, I took the opportunity to visit and get ready to move the rest of my belongings and my beehives to Southern VA. I went a few days early to go through the house and see the kiddos and their babies, did my heart good to see them all, at the same time saying goodbye to an old life that you spent decades building, was an emotionally difficult ordeal. The whole house was chaos. I was glad when I finally had everything sorted and ready to load on a trailer after the race.

I met Kevin who was coming to PA to help crew me and to volunteer at the race and we drove up together. He was still sick as heck from the virus he'd picked up at GDR, but he had brought a trailer to help me move my things and to help get me through the race. He has been a great friend for a long time and knew I was going through a big life upheaval and has offered time and resources to help. Having lost his nephew Dillon in Iraq, he really supports my mission running for veteran mental health so offered to step in through the next few months to make sure I have what I need working towards these final races. So grateful for his friendship!

It was a beautiful drive to northern PA. My family lived up there in 2003 and we loved the area. The steep rolling mountain hills and rivers are so beautiful! We picked up a pizza before heading to the race staff HQ where Chris offered us a place to stay pre-race, which I ended up fueling on most of the race! It was the best dang pizza I've ever eaten, from some little local pizza place near Galeton, PA. We caught up with Chris before heading to bed. I was so stressed I ended up eating a pile of chocolate chip cookies and a plate of pasta too. I figured the extra carbs were helpful, but I really just wanted to eat.

Chris was also running the Dark Sky 220, my race being the second half of the 220 miler, and it had apparently been a total weather disaster. 2 days of freezing sideways rain for the 220 runners, very cold and wet, only 2 were left on the course by the start of the 110. The whole staff already looked exhausted, and the 110 would be starting in the am! Poor Kevin woke up sick as a dog, but still planned to help. The skies looked to be sunny and the weather comfortably cool with some chance of severe weather at some point over the weekend. Being a difficult technical course and self navigating, we had 61 hours to complete it. The heavy rains meant we had a big course change at the race start because there was so much water, some of our river crossings were literally armpit deep and unsafe to navigate alone. With little internet I started the race extremely worried because I didn't have the new gpx. Had wierd technical problems and started way behind everyone.

The trail was immediately challenging with rocks & climbs, steady but not too hard. I was at about mile 7 before I was able to get an internet connection and get the gpx map and could finally relax into the course. I forgot to take out the old layers of gpx which almost proved to be a navigation disaster later on. I was relieved after the emotional trauma of the week to go “get lost” in the wilderness. Moving into survival mode, those first couple of miles were mentally rough. I'd had very little sleep all week and was fatigued, also fatigued from just running Bootlegger the prior Saturday. I decided with 61 hrs., to relax and enjoy the wilderness experience and not push too hard, just embrace the wild. With 12-20 miles between aid stations in this race, you have to have the experience to be self-sufficient, prepared for extremes, and carry many hours' worth of supplies, while maintaining cognitive and physical function on extreme terrain and with physical and mental fatigue.

The forest was so beautiful and enchanting. Waterfalls, rivers, small creeks ponds and streams everywhere in a shining spring green forest. At some points I felt I'd wandered into a dream or a fantasyland and almost expected to see magical creatures. The trail was technical in places but also runnable, none of the hills too steep until we reached “cardiac climb” lol, one of the steeper climbs of the race. It actually didn't feel too bad early on, but it was around the top of this climb when I had to throw on my rain poncho for a heavy rain-lightning-hailstorm. Up till then I still felt fatigued and not really into ultra mode, but the hail was like a switch went off in my brain – hey, you love this stuff!- and suddenly I felt so joyful to be out in the wilderness in a crazy storm doing an epic adventure. I felt like yelling a “he** yeah” channeling my buddy Paul Tilley who thrives in extreme conditions.

Felt like hrs. when I made it to the first aid station for m&ms and a body armor electrolyte. The volunteers were so friendly and awesome. Because Kevin had been super sick in the early morning, I expected he would sleep in and meet me later in the day. I hoped he'd be feeling better. Navigating by gpx and the orange trail blazes of the STS, I almost went off trail about half marathon in, but ran into my friend Randy I met at Forgotten Florida, and he got me back on the right route. Us and another 2 runners stuck together for a while through the afternoon, crossing some crazy rivers and meandering up and down trails through the forests along the beautiful waterways. Some of the crossings were knee deep and swift enough to pull you off your feet without poles for stabilizing. My feet were wet within the first few miles and pretty much stayed wet the entire course.

The race had started Sunday morning. My Sunday school course lesson the week of that I'd been studying was about a prophet named Enos, and I thought about the reading material and lesson as I was in the woods throughout the day.

Enos 1:2-5And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins.

Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart. And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.”

I really felt this as I spent the day in thought and prayer, regarding the circumstances in my life. I felt like I did pray all day long as I moved through the wilderness, absorbing the beauty and nature, the quiet and peace and trying to find specific guidance to navigate my own life, feeling like I'm moving “tree to tree” almost, following the blazes on my life trail without knowing what's ahead, just like I was doing in this race. I found answers to my prayers, clarity of thought, presence of angels and my son, love of the Savior and great peace, and I hoped, the determination I'd need to stay close to the Lord who has so far blessed me immensely every step of my journey so far.

Finally, I got to meet up with my #1 crewman Kevin around a marathon in, which had taken nearly 7 hrs to complete. I'd run the last few miles of that with Randy, we both almost got killed on this big descent into the park. Just a few second ahead of us, the rain had weakened a huge tree that came crashing down and rolling down the mountain on the trail just in front of us. If I hadn't stopped to pee and he hadn't stopped to check his watch, we both would have been hit. It was crazy and got the adrenaline pumping. Late midafternoon, the temps were getting hot in the sun. I knew Kevin was still sick, but he put on a good poker face at the aid station and was nothing but upbeat and cheerful and had cooked me an amazing egg muffin type sandwich and had a big slice of leftovers of the world's best pizza. He had apparently been feeding other runners too, with his fancy griddle and mad cooking/crewing skills, he would continue to volunteer and help everyone else out around me throughout the course.

We had a chance to talk a little while I hydrated & rested a bit before heading out on a monster climb. Sometimes the gpx didn't follow the tree blazes exactly & would get a little bit confusing as to if I was on trail or not, so I had to guess and pray and wing it in a few sections. Fortunately, I seemed to be navigating okay for the present. Randy had left the aid station ahead of me and I caught him in the late afternoon. We had some confusing trail sections while together too, but luckily were able to put our brains together and find the correct route when the gpx didn't match the trail. I was VERY glad I was with him when we entered what is seemingly an actual haunted forest. These signs, lol! It got my tired imagination pumped up and spooked, I'm so glad I wasn't alone, haha.

As early evening rolled in we had another strong line of storms roll through that brought the temps down and a little hail and rain, even a tornado at one point on the course. Near sunset I almost got lost again. Randy and I had run a few miles together along the road and had a nice chat about life. I realized when I'd upgraded my gpx, it hadn't deleted my old files, so I almost took the route with the armpit deep water, luckily Randy straightened me out. We ran together off and on as the night got dark. The evening deepened and got cold, and I felt incredibly slow, just wanted to get to the next aid station. We were told it was 16 miles, but it ended up being 21, which out on this kind of course is easily an extra 2 hours, I was wet, cold, out of supplies, so of course we had another round of rain and a super technical, soaking wet descent, and ascent. I passed 2 other men along this section, so I'd moved up 5 places from the back and was solid mid pack. I was feeling proud and happy about that.

When I rolled into this next aid station 40+ miles, I was never so happy to see Kevins green headlamp. He had his cookstove open and his Lexus crew truck opened up with strings of lights and music playing which made a fun vibe. The official aid station was there too with lights, food, chairs and most happily, a super hot camp heater! Kevin cooked me the most amazing meal of 'adult macaroni' we'd found at walmart, added chicken, mushrooms, onions and who knows what else! After all the chilly, hungry wet miles eating the last of my supplies which were mostly straight sugar, a hot creamy pasta with protein tased like the best thing on the planet. The aid station had some gallon Ziploc bags I could put on my feet, so I lubed up with A&D ointment on my poor shriveled gross feet, put on dry socks and bags to keep moisture out for a while. The hot food and warming up by the heater gave me a huge reset. I felt so much better and energized to tackle the first night portion, feeling good about my pace & that perhaps I would finish before running a night 2. I talked to the other RD, volunteers, Randy who came rolling in after me and the two guys I'd passed as we all took time to regroup before heading into the night. I really appreciated having Kevin there, nothing like a friends face and personal help and someone who 'gets you' to remind me of my mission and to help me feel motivated and tough to push on. Apparently, some of the volunteers for the actual race had fallen through, so Kevins cooking skills ended up helping a lot of the other runners. I know the 4 of us in that aid station were all raving about his mac n cheese lol.

Headed back into the night. It was absolutely stunning. The storm had cleared out, the partial moon lit up the fog deep down in the valleys, the forest around me pitch black, the sky sooo bright with stars. It was unreal. I felt so close to nature, to God, to my Marine boys. I almost felt I could have an out loud open conversation with them as we moved along in the dark, singing songs and thinking of each of their family members, Nina & Gabe, Brenda, Shanen, Maggie, Sally, Amanda... grief, loss, hope, happiness, tragedy and trauma, beauty, despair, love & loss, betrayal and friendship...I thought of these things as I ran along under the stars. What a wild ride of emotion this life is. Every day, some new challenge to rise above. I felt so grateful to have this physical ability to run a difficult mentally, physically and spiritually challenging ultramarathon, to help bring perspective and meaning and understanding of the greater journey we are all on trying to survive this life. Most of all that night feeling so grateful for my empathetic friends and my loving children who have been such a support to me through dark and troubled and misunderstanding times, and times of grief trying to survive Dexters suicide still. Hannah sent me several texts about some choice experiences she had over the weekend at home in the midst of our own family challenges, where she knew Dexter was watching over all of us. A witness that there is an unseen world greater than us, and that we are never alone... even out doing crazy things in a mountain wilderness.

Anyway, as the night progressed, lack of sleep was catching up with me. I finally reached a point where I was walking in my sleep. I did have a brief encounter with a running porcupine who ran half a mile with me, that kindof woke me up, but I staggered into the next aid station in the wee hrs of the morning. Kevin was feeling so sick he hardly stirred in his vehicle and everyone at the aid station was asleep. I grabbed some food and hydration and climbed in Kevins car next to him. I set my alarm for 10 minutes and zonked out fast asleep. He had the heater on and I warmed up and felt a little refreshed. Kevin woke up enough to apologize for not having any food ready for me, poor sick man! At some point, he'd found a store and picked up ice cream sandwiches, who finds those in the middle of nowhere? I ate 4 I think at some point, and they were pretty melty by now and I had to suck them down like gels, but wow, so good. Great calorie and mood boost! I told him I was fine and headed out. The moon had set and the stars were incredible. Kevin captured a pic of the milky way. Just bloody brilliant.

I found after about 5 miles that I really still hadn't had enough sleep. I tried popping another caffeine pill but was soon staggering. I woke up running on my feet just before crashing into a tree so I laid down next to the side of the gravel road and took a few moments to soak in the stars, then went to sleep. I have no idea how long I was asleep. It was a weird feeling of risk and exhaustion, like I'm in the middle of the wilderness at 3am sleeping on a road, what the heck, lol. But, the nap did me good and I was able to stay awake until dawn. It was a cold, but spectacular sunrise.

Tackled one of the most difficult parts of the trail in the early morning. Wild and remote and technical miles. I had a huge descent and then huge climb which entailed crossing a frigid river multiple times in the cold morning as I climbed out of a steep and narrow canyon. Slow miles, and one of the most ridiculous descents I've ever done, sooo technical was on wolf path. Oh my gosh, it went on forever with loose boulders and rocks and a toe crushing slope. As technical as the worst descent at Grindstone but probably 5x as long. This course really was no joke. We were rerouted because of the flooding and got quite a few easy gravel road miles, I can imagine this course would have taken me 10+ hours longer if all those miles had been equivalent trails, I actually hope I get to do them next year though, lol.

The descent on Wolf was so mentally exhausting that when I hit a smooth road, my brain literally went to sleep as I cruised down it and into this little touristy town where the next aid station was. Somehow, I made the correct turns to the AS without thinking and found myself at the aid station tapping Kevin on the shoulder. I surprised him, because my tracker said I was 4 miles away. I was in a daze and one of the other runners told me I had missed a turn and a 4 mile loop that I needed to do. UGH. I was disgusted with myself because it meant I had to backtrack to do the loop, luckily only a mile or so. I was able to unload all my heavy night gear, lamps, coats etc, grab some real food, thankfully Kevin had a hot mini red baron pizza on the grill that was warmed up, so I headed back up the road with tears of exhaustion running down my face. At least the pizza was delicious. Of course the loop I missed was a ridiculously stupid steep climb that had to have like 1200 feet of vert in a mile or two. Straight up the mountain! I was exhausted but the trail luckily wasn't technical so I was able to grind it out pretty well. The descent however was really steep and had loose rubble rocks, so I tripped and fell on both knees at one point, and just made really slow progress. Finally after what felt like hours got through that stupid 4 mile loop and back to the aid station where Kevin had a big bowl of delicious chicken spaghetti waiting for me. I took some time to cook off and get ice, recoup. Had a chance to visit with Chris finally who'd been running all over doing aid stations. I was so excited to hear his charity had been given a $1000 donation, and he expressed just the most genuine joy that that amount of money would allow them to help 3 ptsd veterans get through counseling. Man, he is the real deal. It's a privilege to run his race, to be associate with him, and I hope, to help him with his foundation somehow in the future. That is exactly the kind of thing I'd love to do as I near the finish of my 100 100s. I still plan to run 100s but I would like to be more involved on the ground in a non profit org. Kevin sent me off with that last piece of heavenly pizza.

Well, they saw me off onto another long stretch into the hot afternoon. I was moving slow and ran through a town, pretty, but the open sun and streets were hot. I was glad to get back to the trail and access every mile to water to cool off in. Except, I was not prepared for the most absurdely hard climb I have ever done in my life. I swear we had a 45 degree slope, up a running riverbed of wet slick rocks, that had to go on for at least 2 miles. I don't know that I've ever been on such a ridiculously difficult trail. I tried to mentall suck it up because I needed to believe that I could do OUray and I imagine it being this hard. I finally conquered it but the afternoon going was pretty dang rough. The rest of that portion of trail was steep, and ridiculously technical, and much if not most of it, still meandered right through a riverbed, so basically hiking up slippery rocks for miles and miles. The only benefit was access to unlimited cold drinking water which I took advantage of, and constantly dousing my head and body in the icy cold water. At one point I found a pool at the bottom of a little waterfall and basically just sat in it for a few minutes, let all the sweat and dirt wash off my body and got my body temp to lower. I was so glad to finally get through that section.

I thought I had less than 10 miles to go when I met Kevin and one of the RDS at an unofficial rest stop by the side of the road. When they told me I had 16 or 20 miles left to go, I was just so disgusted and exhausted and was so done, I grabbed a few things I needed though not nearly enough calories for the effort ahead, and just kinda waved them off without hardly wanting to talk or visit. I just wanted to get this over with. That was really my big low of the race. The afternoon heat was really getting to me, sleeping on my feet again but fortunately no nausea. Got back on trail and luckily had some easy pleasant trail miles for awhile. I thought I only had a few hrs to go, then suddenly checking gpx realized I missed my turn somehow and my brain coudlnt figure out the directions on my tracker. Do I go left or right? Forward or backwards? Uphill or down? I ran back and forth on this mile secion of trail trying to find my course and just couldnt figure it out. I could see where I needed to be, so I did the risky thing and went off trail, cut through the woods watching my tracker to join back up with the trail ahead of me. The woods were full of fallen trees, bogs, rivers, rocks, wild ground.... I thought I'd made a huge mistake and was lost for good, and might end up having to be rescued, got into a little bit of panic and started crying and praying. No phone signal either. I just decided all I could do was continue to plow thru the forest until my tracker matched back up to the gpx. Kevin called me just as I got back to the trail, I was still emotional over getting lost and in tears, but hearing a friendly voice and finding the trail I was flooded with relief and was ready to bring it home by sunset. On the map the course looked fairly straightforward. I ended up missing a turn and traveling another extra mile or two before I caught it and got back on trail. I was expecting to be hitting the final 5 mile paved road any mile now... Unfortunately, my mileage was off and the map was deceptive. The trail was not technical but I got hit with the most ridiculous beast of a climb... It had to be the majority of vert in this race in a short section of just a few miles. I hit a steep climb and pushed hard to crest the top, only to find it was a false summit. I thought, this is so rude. Crested the next summit, only to find it was also a false summit! I swear this happened more than 5 friggin times. I was hating it but at the same time I felt really super grateful for all the long vert because I knew mentally, I would need to embrace this suck to ever have a chance at finishing Ouray in Colorado in July. I told myself that would be so much worse, I needed to accept the challenge, the exhaustion, the sore muscles, the weariness of body and mind and spirit, just keep moving one step at a time, and pausing every few hundred steps to stop and breath, take in a few of my rationed calories, and absorb the truly beautiful heights and stunning early evening sun in the remote wilderness. I told myself, I'm almost done, I've made it this far. My goal was a 38-40 hr finish and I was right on track, even taking my time and getting lost.

I know at some point Kevin met me again for my last aid. I honestly can't remember even meeting him except that I felt his love and support, I was so fatigued the last 5 miles I don't remember anything about them, it was paved and slow and the sun was long gone. Somehow I navigated them, occasionally snapping awake as my feet hit the grass on the side of the road jolting me awake. I vaguely remember some pasture fences, cows, a barn or two, and lots of stars. By some miracle didn't get lost with my brain mostly asleep and I ran into the finish just a few minutes over 38 hours. There was an appropriate eagle statue to touch at the finish, I felt like an eagle has been my guardian over the last 2 months, so I felt a wave of emotion and gave that little statue a kiss. Was so grateful to be finished.

Got to talk to folks at the finish and Kevin was there to help make sure I was able to get pointed to the ladies room to get cleaned up. It was close to 10pm, too late for us to drive and in the middle of nowhere, no place to immediately crash. He was still feeling really bad and I was exhausted, we both crashed in the front seats of his lexus until dawn, and then made the 5 hr trip to my farm in Berryville. No rest for the sick and weary, once we arrive there even though I'd just run 111 miles and Kevin was still having massive leftover symptoms of the norovirus he'd caught 2 weeks earlier, he hooked up his trailer & I loaded all the remaining belongings I had at the farmhouse, including my beehives, and visited Dexter at the cemetery before heading back to southern Virginia. In the late afternoon at the cemetery, a giant owl landed and watched over the cemetery for a while, a sign of love. <3 it was 11pm by the time all my beehives, with some ridiculously heavy lifting, minor mishaps and a few bee stings, were loaded on the trailer and I was on the road again to Galax, VA. 5 miles into the drive I was swerving like a drunk driver, so had to pull over and spend the night in the sheetz parking lot that 2 of my sons had worked at. It seemed appropriate. I randomly had a conversation with a sheetz employee in the bathroom in the morning about divorce, mental health, addiction, life changes, taking care of yourself etc. It was just a random meeting but seemed to be a conversation that was important and meant to be. After another full mornings drive, lots of snacks and an energy drink finally rolled into my new home and got my bees settled into their new beeyard before I finally had the chance to crash and sleep. A 110 mile ultramarathon that actually felt like it lasted 8 full days on nonstop emotion and lack of sleep. I really leaned on the strength and protection of the Lord and my Marines, and best of friends. Took me almost a week to get unpacked and settled and caught up on sleep. I think I made the right decision to take a long break after this race. I've done a couple moderate training days this week, and hope to get in some real training for Ouray. Isaac and Bethan hooked me up with a nice backpack and weights to add to my vert training which is a huge effort. Im living in a campground at the Froggy Mountain 100 race course that I'm running in June and plan to help clear the property and get things ready for race day and hope to talk a few more people into coming out. This is a special place and I really felt led by Dexter to be here. It feels like a sanctuary and refuge and a place I can find peace while I try to follow the spirit and the 'treemarkers' to my next stage of life. One thing I know, finishing # 72, I am well on track and physically and mentally strong enough to solidly wrap up these 100 100s and beyond, God willing. Despite the break in the family, I'm immensely grateful to be surrounded by supportive friends. Sharing an ultra-experience I think is akin in many ways, to having battle buddies. It's a family with unbreakable bonds. I'm grateful for the rescue I've found here. I found my local LDS congregation a short 40 minute drive from my new home. I know every heartbreak will pass and that all these experiences are for growth and wisdom

I'm grateful every day for the chance to run. I hope now that I'm settled I can focus again on my passion which is veteran mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

Cherry Springs 110

#72 100/100 In memory and honor of Dexter, Morgan, Jacob, Jake, Taylor

Also always in my thoughts, miles run for Nate, Jenn and Dillon. <3